1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to base shoes glass railing systems and particularly to base shoes having stanchion supports.
2. Description of the Prior Art
This new invention serves to overcome a series of installation issues currently experienced by those mounting a base shoe for structural glass railing systems to a concrete surface.
The current state of the art, involves mounting the U-shaped base shoe to a concrete surface with some form of expansion bolt or self-tapping anchor. With this method, the installers must accurately drill both the extruded aluminum base shoe and the corresponding concrete balcony surface. The base shoe extrusion is typically drilled in factory conditions based on field dimensions, and the concrete surface is obviously drilled in the field using masonry drills and special concrete bits. The alignment and spacing of these holes are critical to the success of the installation. Given that many typical installations require holes spacing in the 6″ to 12″ range, many holes must be very accurately drilled. Holes that are drilled in the wrong position or even slightly out of alignment will likely not allow the fasteners to engage. Then, the entire assembly must be removed, and new holes drilled for each of the affected locations before and another attempt to fit the base shoe is made. It is common that even when all holes line up properly, the anchors will not engage properly due to galling of the threads or an anchor that has improper engagement in the slab spins in its hole. These problems also require the complete disassembly of the base shoe section until all locations are remedied. In fact, the potential for problems with this mounting method is so great that many General Contractors now require an independent consulting engineer to sign off on the proper installation of each fastener to verify that the finished system meets the minimum engineering requirements. It is also known that concrete anchors that utilize an expansive action or thread-cutting action to create the mechanical connection exert stress to a concrete structure and increase the possibility of spalling and cracking at each drilled location. Given that field labor costs are so negatively impacted by this inefficient installation method, a new mounting method had to be created.